Love Worth Finding

Adrian Rogers: Listen closely as Adrian Rogers shares the importance of sharing Jesus with others. There's no greater joy than bringing a soul to Jesus Christ. But all of us have to get jumpstarted every now and then. It's so easy to go to church, to study our Bible, to have our devotions, to do what we do. But friend, would you not say, "Lord Jesus, help me to share."

Guest (Male): One of these days, you're going to meet the Savior. All the soulwinning you're ever going to do, you'll do in this world, in this life. Welcome to Love Worth Finding featuring the dynamic teaching of beloved pastor and Bible teacher Adrian Rogers. The soul is of great worth. When God made the human soul, He made it in His own image. Therefore, they are endless, timeless, dateless, and measureless.

Every soul has the potential to be transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ. We must be committed to sharing our faith because it's the command of our Savior. If you have your Bible, turn to Psalm chapter 126 as Adrian Rogers gives the powerful conclusion of learning to share Jesus.

Adrian Rogers: Proverbs chapter 11 and verse 30. The Bible says, "He that winneth souls is wise." Now, how many of you think of yourselves as wise? Now, listen to it again. He that winneth souls is wise. Why is it so wise to bring a soul to Jesus Christ? To teach somebody to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ? Because of the value of a soul.

Remember what Jesus said? Jesus said, "What should it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what should a man give in exchange for his soul?" A soul is so incredibly valuable that Jesus, in this passage of scripture, taught that one soul is worth more than the whole world. One soul. So, if you won just one soul to Jesus Christ, think what you've done.

Why is a soul so valuable? Well, a soul is so valuable, first of all, friend, because of its desirability. Did you know that the devil desires your soul and God desires your soul? How can we tell whether a thing is desirable or not? By the price someone will pay for it. Jesus, with His precious blood on the cross, died that a soul might be redeemed. Not only is a soul desirable, but a soul is so durable. Now, the value of anything is measured not only by its desirability, but its durability.

A soul will last for all eternity. Friend, look up here, let me tell you something. There was a time when you were not, there never will be a time when you will not be. Your soul will go on endless, dateless, timeless, measureless through all eternity. When the stars have splattered and faded, your soul will be in existence somewhere. That's the value of a soul.

Jesus spoke of those in hell and the Bible says they are tormented day and night forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever. The same is true of heaven. Through all the endless ages, a soul will be in existence, either in heaven or in hell. Desirability, durability. I'll tell you another thing about a soul. Its possibility.

In your seat this morning, there are three possible persons. There's the person you are right now. There's the person you could be for evil if you fail to follow God. And there's the person you may be made like into the likeness of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. When you win souls, you're wise because of the value of a soul. And when you win souls, you're wise because of the command of the Savior.

Jesus has commanded us to make disciples. That's not a suggestion. That's not a request. Listen carefully. The Christian who does not share his faith is guilty of high treason against his God. You see, Jesus said, "Follow me and I will make you to become fishers of men." Now, if you're not fishing for men, by what right of logic do you have to say that you're following Jesus?

"Follow me, I will make you to become fishers of men." If you are not fishing, you're not following. Is my logic wrong? No. You're not following Christ. You're not abiding in Christ. Jesus said in John 15, "If you abide in me and my word abides in you, you will bring forth much fruit." Are you bearing fruit? Are people coming to know the Lord Jesus Christ through your life? Then you're not abiding in Christ.

Do you love Jesus? Jesus said, "If you love me, keep my commandments." Are you keeping His commandments? What right do you have to say that you love the Lord Jesus if you're not obeying His chief commandment to share your faith? Why is winning souls so wise? Because of the value of a soul. Because of the command of Christ. And because of the reward of the soulwinner.

Friend, to share your faith in Jesus Christ and to see your brother, your sister, your father, your mother, your friend, your neighbor, your teammate, your schoolmate, or whomever come to Christ, brings one of the greatest rewards that life can ever know. And I want to give you four factors here about sharing your faith.

Number one. Number one, you must be committed to share your faith. Look at it again. The Bible says here in Psalm 126 of verses 5 and 6, "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." You must be committed to share your faith.

Number two. Not only must you be committed to share your faith, you must be concerned when you share your faith. Notice the scripture again. Psalm 126, verses 5 and 6. "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy." It is amazing that we have such a lack of tears. I want to ask you this question sincerely. You say you love the Lord Jesus Christ. You say that Christ is in you.

Do the things that break the heart of Jesus break yours? If you don't have a broken heart for the unsaved, I suggest that you get alone and wait before God until God gives you a passion and a compassion. Jesus, when he saw the multitudes, was moved with compassion. I tell you one of the great problems today is, in the words of another, a dry-eyed church in a hell-bent world.

Many of us have brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers and neighbors who, if they die in this state today, are going to die and go to hell. And we claim to know the answer. Now, friend, we must share our faith with compassion and with love. Now, number three. Number three, you must be consistent as you share your faith.

Notice what it says again. "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing." The idea of bearing precious seed is just scattering the seed everywhere you go. What is the seed? The seed is the word of God. The word of God. Jesus, in the parable of the sower, said the seed is the word.

We're born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God. We have the precious word of God, and everywhere we go, we need to be consistent in sharing the seed because the seed has power. Years ago, I read about a woman who thought that she would somehow protect her body from decay or vandalism or whatever. She was a very rich woman.

So she had her body, made plans in her will, to have her body buried in a great concrete vault. And then she had steel bands put around that vault so it could not be opened. And then she wrote, had written on that steel vault, these words: "Sealed for eternity." You know what happened? There got a hairline crack in that vault, according to the story that I read.

And a seed fell in that hairline crack and sprouted and began to grow. And the pressure of that seed and those roots went out, cracked that vault wide open, and a mighty tree grew over that vault. She said it was sealed for eternity, but a seed, one little seed, one powerful seed, cracked that vault wide open. And I'm telling you, there are people whose hearts are hard as concrete with steel bands around them, but the word of God is so powerful.

Friend, never, never, never diminish the power of the word of God. You need to understand what you have in your hand when you have a Bible. It is powerful. The word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword. And we need to know it in our heads, store it in our hearts, and sow it in the world. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again.

Do you want a harvest? Well, you have to sow to have a harvest. The Bible says whatever we sow, we'll reap. You sow the word of God. You share what Jesus Christ has done for you. You say, "Well, Pastor, I'm just not trained." You don't even have to be trained. You don't even have to be trained. A preacher went into the back of a big department store, like a Walmart or Target or whatever.

He wanted to buy some fishing tackle. And he walked back there, all the way back to the back of the store, and he asked this question. He said, "What is a good bass lure?" A man's head snapped around and he came up to him, just a stranger, didn't work there in the store. He didn't know who the preacher was, but he began talking to him about bass lures and hooks and lines and boats and fishing places and bass.

And that preacher said, "When I walked out of the department store, that man was still behind me talking about fish, talking about bass, talking about hooks, talking about lures, talking about lines, talking about boats." It's obvious to see where that man's love was. I don't ever think that he went to a course that said "how to share your fishing ability."

He just had an experience. He wanted to share it. That's the reason we're called witnesses. We're not lawyers. We're witnesses. A lawyer argues a case. A witness tells what he's seen and heard. And very frankly, the reason that some don't witness is they haven't seen or heard anything. We have the seed. We are to share the word of God.

Now, next and finally, we are to be confident in sharing. You must be confident in sharing your faith. Notice again, Psalm 126, verses 5 and 6. "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed." Here's the promise now. "Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him."

You need to have this confidence. Now, not everybody you witness to is going to get saved. I dare say most of the people I witness to personally don't get saved. I don't bat a thousand. I don't bat five hundred. I probably don't bat two hundred and fifty in baseball parlance. But I tell you, some will get saved. When a sower goes out to sow, not all the seed that he sows sprouts.

That's the reason you just lavishly sow. You remember the parable there in Mark chapter 4 where the Lord Jesus Christ gave the parable of the sower. Some seed fell by the wayside. The fowls came and got it. Some fell on stony ground, and it sprang up and then withered. Some fell among the thorns, and the thorns choked it out. But some fell on good soil.

You don't know who's going to get saved. You just keep sharing your faith. You just keep scattering the seed. It's God that gives increase, not you. Your job is to scatter the seed. Sometimes you think the most unlikely people are there and they will never get saved. A while back, I got a letter from a man. He said, "Forgive me for not writing you."

He said, "I want to tell you what happened to me." He said, "Years ago, when you were a pastor in Merritt Island, Florida, I was a long-haired hippie surfer type. Had a surfboard going down the street on a hot day and you stopped and picked me up in your automobile. And you shared Jesus Christ with me."

"And I was trying to act cool. I was trying to act like I was paying no attention to you and I kind of pretended to brush you off. But you witnessed to me. You shared Jesus Christ with me and you prayed with me and let me out of the car." He said, "Forgive me for not writing you sooner and telling you this, but I never got your witness out of my heart until I gave my heart to Jesus Christ and God has saved me and now I'm a preacher of the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

Now, I didn't know that. Matter of fact, I had to think hard to even remember the incident after I got the letter because that's what you do. You're just throwing out the seed. You don't know when somebody is going to get saved, when they're not. But friend, if you go and weep and pray and share and give and always do it consistently, you're going to find out that you will have the greatest joy in the world.

And that is the joy of coming with your sheaves to lay at Jesus' feet. The golden grain. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. Now, you tell me, Pastor Rogers, it won't work, it won't work. When you tell me it won't work, do you know what you're telling me?

I'll tell you what you're telling me. You're telling me, friend, that you're not trying it. You're telling me that you're not doing it. Because I'm telling you that God's word says, "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." Sometimes it takes a long time for your crop, the harvest to come in.

Some years ago in our city, there was a man that I got a burden for. He was in the medical field, a doctor. And he was one of the sons of Abraham. I loved him and he loved me. And he would catch me sometimes preaching on television and he would say, "You know, you're a good talker." And we would talk and so forth.

And I began slowly at first and then more strongly to share Jesus with this dear man. We became friends. Went to the Memphis State ball games many times together. He had season tickets, had special seats and we would go to the ball games together and talk and laugh, enjoy the ball game. That's back when Memphis State was called Memphis State.

And I began to get bolder and bolder sharing Jesus with this man. Finally, one time he said to me, "Adrian," he said, "Every time we're together, you're talking to me about Jesus. Now, you know who I am. You know my background. You know my family. Don't always be talking to me about Jesus. Can we just have a good time without you talking to me about Jesus?"

I said, "Well, Irvin, yeah. We can have a good time without my talking to you about Jesus. And I won't talk to you about Jesus. But Irvin, I want you to know what I'm thinking." And I said, "Irvin, this is what I'm going to be thinking." Told him about Jesus. And I said, "Now if I'm not talking to you, you smart enough to know what I'm thinking."

And so we continued to be friends. Years passed and I continued to pray for this man. He had a serious heart attack. I went to the hospital to see him. And he said to me, "Adrian, I was at a funeral that you preached a while back. Oh," he said, "what you said about heaven was wonderful."

I said, "Irvin, I don't want to be there without you." He said, "Don't start that again." I said, "Irvin, here you are on perhaps a deathbed and you're telling me not to start that again. You may be just a heartbeat from eternity." He sat up in bed, put his feet on that little stool in that white gown and looked at me and he said, "All right, tell me about it."

And I told him about it. And I said, "Now let's pray." And he prayed and asked Christ into his heart after months and years of love and faithfulness. He prayed and asked Christ into his heart. I went home from that hospital that night. I walked out in the darkness, I took my keys, and I threw them in the air.

And it was so dark I didn't know where they landed. I was just so happy. Just so thrilled that God gave me the privilege to bring just one soul to Jesus Christ. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. There's no greater joy than bringing a soul to Jesus Christ.

But all of us have to get jumpstarted every now and then. It's so easy to go to church, to study our Bible, to have our devotions, to do what we do, and it's all good. But friend, would you not say, "Lord Jesus, help me to share." He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

All the soulwinning you're ever going to do, you'll do in this world and this life. One of these days you're going to meet the Savior. Must I go in empty-handed? Must I meet my Savior so without one soul with which to greet Him? Must I empty-handed go? And would you, friend, begin to pray that God will make you a soulwinner?

Would you pray that God will give you a burden for the unsaved? And maybe say, "Lord, lay a particular soul upon my heart. Not just the world, that's fine. But Lord, some soul upon my heart. And help me to share my faith." And now, friend, if sharing faith is so important, certainly receiving Jesus is important.

Receiving what is being shared. And I've shared Jesus with you today. If you're not saved, you can be saved. Let me tell you that you must acknowledge that you are a sinner and that your sin deserves judgment and punishment and eternal death and hell. But also believe that God still loves you. And God, in mercy, allowed His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die upon the cross for you and to pay your sin debt with His precious blood.

And He's done that. And that Jesus is proven to be the Son of God when God raised Him from the dead. And that He said in His word that if you will trust Him, He'll save you. The Bible says clearly and plainly, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." Will you believe on Him today? Will you trust Him? Will you right now?

Then let me guide you in a prayer. Pray this prayer. Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner. I know that I'm lost. I need to be saved. I want to be saved. Jesus, You died to save me and promised to save me if I would trust You. I do trust You, Jesus. Come into my heart. Forgive my sin. Save me, Jesus. Pray it and mean it, friend. Save me, Jesus. Save me, Lord Jesus.

Did you ask Him? Then pray this way. Thank You for doing it, Jesus. I receive it by faith. I stand on Your word. That settles it. Begin now to make me the person You want me to be. And give me the courage to make it public. In Your name I pray. Amen.

Guest (Male): And if you prayed to receive Jesus Christ just now, we want to celebrate with you and invite you to our Discover Jesus page online. There you'll find answers you may need about your new-found faith. We have a response section you can share your testimony or how this message has made a difference in your life. Simply go to lwf.org/radio and click the tab that says Discover Jesus. Welcome to God's forever family. Let us hear from you today.

Cary Vaughn: Hi, this is Cary Vaughn, and this program has been brought to you by Love Worth Finding, a non-profit ministry showcasing the powerful preaching and teaching of Pastor Adrian Rogers. We operate solely through the generous gifts of individual supporters just like you. To give a gift today, call 1-877-LOVEGOD.

That's 1-877-LOVEGOD, or write to us at Love Worth Finding, Box 38-600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183. You can also connect with us online by going to lwf.org/radio. There, we offer helpful resources inspired by the timeless teaching of Pastor Adrian Rogers.

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When you donate to the ministry this month, we'd love to send a copy of our brand new book, In the Beginning God: Timeless Truth for Today's Culture. This resource brings clarity to life's biggest questions by taking readers back to where it all began, the Book of Genesis. Drawn from the trusted teaching of Pastor Adrian Rogers, this pocket-sized question and answer book addresses the foundational issues people are still wrestling with today. To request a copy of the book, call us at 1-877-LOVEGOD.